Bailout
by Trinitas
Summary: How House figured out the truth of the Dibala case and supplied the necessary cover. Post-ep for "Instant Karma."


**Bailout**

Apparently they have a two-for-one special on puzzles this week: Dying Kid's seventeen previous doctors weren't complete idiots, because Dying Kid refuses to die in a way that makes medical sense. And Foreman and Chase's reluctance to produce the M-and-M report…

He can understand why Foreman would be annoyed by having to report a screwup and put it on academic display: that's an ego thing. What's less obvious is why Chase has a problem with it: he's usually okay admitting a mistake. He's apologetic; he learns; he doesn't do it again.

Behavioral anomalies are the kind of thing House prides himself on picking up, and Chase isn't exactly withholding data. Within a couple of hours, it's clear that he and Foreman are together in the big nasty secret and Cameron's been left out of the loop.

House gets a chance to eavesdrop just as Foreman is complaining about how the M-and-M audience is going to scent blood in the water and that he's not taking any kind of risks without protection.

That's typical Foreman, but why does he think his neck is on the chopping block when Chase's behavior suggests Chase is to blame for whatever went wrong? Foreman doesn't risk besmirching his precious reputation just to spare a colleague some embarrassment or a slap on the wrist.

Unless…

—

Later, while the team runs tests on Dying Kid, House looks over the pertinent paperwork. Dibala died of blastomycosis while under treatment for scleroderma. Everything is textbook, except for a twenty-percent discrepancy in the HDL levels run on the blood tested for anticentromere antibodies versus the ones run off a previous blood draw.

Fat black guy, it's probable one of his doctors had him on something for cholesterol management. But a discrepancy caused by medication wouldn't explain Foreman's fervent desire for ass-coverage or Chase's preoccupation with the M-and-M.

But if the screwup wasn't a screwup…if Chase had suspected blasto in the first place…

Take a little blood from a patient who'd actually had scleroderma, fudge the anti-centromere test, push the right buttons to make Foreman switch the meds and voilá: scratch one genocidal dictator. No more pending bloodbath in Africa.

It explains everything.

Cameron and Foreman wouldn't have been in on what Chase planned to do—neither of them would have allowed it—but Foreman must have picked up some incriminating detail Chase overlooked by virtue of being a good doctor but a lousy criminal, and now both of them are pursuing the worthy goal of staying out of prison.

House should get behind them on that, because they're probably half-stupid with fear of getting busted and won't have made the connection he has.

He puts the files back the way he found them and sends a request under Foreman's name for records that had better have something in them to explain the cholesterol glitch.

The choice between a single murder and genocide is a practical no-brainer: the death of one man to preserve the lives of thousands. Acceptable sacrifice, and no doubt Chase had made similar calculations.

In a weird way, House is almost proud of the kid: he'd kicked him out of Diagnostics years ago to force him to grow a spine, and this is an excellent indicator of the guts to act on his convictions.

But seriously, how many people are actually stupid enough to risk throwing away the rest of their lives to save the faceless masses?

He makes a mental note: Chase needs some saner convictions.

—

Once Dying Kid is saved by an eleventh-hour epiphany and Dibala's faxed records confirm his theory about a previous doctor potentially meddling with the dictator's HDL levels (three lives saved this week: he's ahead of his own game), he meets Chase in his office. He's sitting in House's chair, toying with the oversized ball off the desk.

House gives a brief rundown through the thought process Chase would have managed himself under other circumstances; watches the younger man watch him. What, does he think House is going to play judge and jury?

"You don't think I should be fired?"

No. Last time he'd fired Chase, the point had been to force some growth. Firing him now would be needlessly punitive: from what House had seen in the conference room earlier, watching Chase's body language scream _anguish_, he's already got a boatload of unresolved Catholic guilt and is punishing himself more than enough. "I doubt we'll ever be treating a genocidal dictator again," he says. Then, "Better a murder than a misdiagnosis."

Let him read into that whatever he needs to hear.

Chase gets up, meets his gaze. "Whether you want to be in charge or not, you are. And you always will be." He tosses the ball back, gives House a slight nod probably intended to mean _thanks._

He didn't do it for Chase's loyalty. He's not even sure he _wants_ loyalty, because after the past few months he knows too well he's fallible. (Hell, how many things has he done he should technically be in prison for?)

But if this pulls the scales between them into some weird balance, makes up for some of the pain he caused in the past, he's not going to complain.

**END.**


End file.
